I’ve known this for years, having experienced this with my children. For example, while my youngest has access to a variety of desk top, laptop computers; as well as iPhone’s and iPod’s, (don’t they all) she still takes handwritten notes in all he classes. Because of her very level of comprehension and retention associated with the pure psychology of hand to brain association, she also has a very high GPA. The fact that she takes after her mother and is very smart is inconsequential, but it does lead me to suggest to you a great graduation gift for your academically student.

A “Cross”, “Pelikan” or “Mont Blanc” roller ball or ball point pen from my vintage collection for your graduate, will go a long way towards insuring their successful college experience. You can see my vintage collection at both American Classics Marketplace in B26, or my newest site in case #26 at Antique Gallery on S. Wahsatch, downtown Colorado Springs.

As we are talking note taking here, I do not suggest a fountain pen, even though I love writing with them and have some beautiful ones for sale. For the student, fountain pens need a longer drying time which hinders rapid note taking.

Every Cross, Pelikan and Mont Blanc has a lifetime warranty, regardless of age. Pens in my collection are all made in the USA or in the case of the Mont Blanc’s, Germany. Refills for these pens can be found anywhere, including college supply stores which insures that they will not end up unused, sitting in the bottom of some backpack.

Like this:

Did you know that if it hadn’t of been for a ballpoint pen, our moon landing astronauts might not have returned from the moon? Did you know that the Japanese are tops in Pen Spinning? Did you know there was such a sport. Didn’t know that people spun pens? Neither did I, until I saw it. I decided to master this art, but after breaking a few glasses, sticking a pen in my eye and generally feeling quite inadequate for my age, I said the heck with it. Here, check it out http://youtu.be/mTIbc7WKoKs

The history of writing instruments is the history of civilization itself. Easily traceable, the history is evident in everything we see, hear or experience. Somewhere, sometime, someone had to write it. Our earliest known graffiti artists were cave men who left evidence of their thinking by scratching and painting their thoughts on cave walls. Then some genius determined that carrying a clay tablet around was easier than carrying a cave wall.

Necessity became the mother of writing paper when it was found that Papayas was lighter than clay, and that by pounding wood into pulp not only eliminated all your anger, but also made a lighter material called paper. Paper came about around 2000 BC. The problem with paper is that it required a pen and something called ‘ink.’ Some far thinking Chinese scholar had already invented the ink 600 years earlier in 2600 BC. They called it Indian Ink. (go figure) It was made from the oil from donkeys, musk ox , soot and lamp oil. It smelled nasty and the musk ox didn’t want to give up their oil to easy. (Have you ever tried to scrape oil off a musk ox?)

The problem with ink was that it was a liquid. Liquid held in suspense by bristles on a brush were ok, even though somewhat messy, but when you put this ink stuff on a pointed stick and tried to write with it, it didn’t get too far. Therefore, the Chinese used hollowed pieces of bamboo. They got farther in writing across a page, but still messy. Someone thought of using the stem from marsh grass and we had ourselves the start of a communication. Next time, I’ll write and tell you about a sales rep and a lost million dollar sale, that led to the best known invention of modern times.

Fisher Space Pens (Photo credit: mr_t_77)

Oh, and that ballpoint pen and the astronauts. After returning to the landing module, Buzz Aldrin accidentally broke the switch used to activate the ascent engines. Without being able to toggle this switch, the rockets would not fire. NASA Engineers scrambled trying to figure out a solution. One of the astronauts took apart his new Fisher – write anywhere Space Pen and used the tube to shove down into the broken part of the switch. Neat. FYI, you can buy a vintage Fisher pen from my Antique Pen Store in American Classics – case 110 (Moved to a bigger Case #409 and we also expanded to Dads Corner – Space C30)